PS 101 Introduction to Psychology 

Meets Tuesday & Friday 10:20 – 11:35, Wanaque campus, W110

Instructor: Dr. Lonna Murphy
Office: W124
Office Hrs: M: noon-1 PM, T: 6-7 PM, W: 1-2 PM, and F: noon-1 PM. Also by appointment.

Required Text: Myers, D. G. (2008). Exploring Psychology (7th Ed.) New York: Worth Publishers.

Course Description: An introduction to psychology covering general principles, concepts, and facts about human behavior and major contribution to the field of psychology as a science. Topics include history, methodology, sensation and perception, learning, memory, motivation, emotion, personality, and the physiological basis of behavior.

1. Students will be able to describe how psychologists do their research.
2. Students will be able to analyze a psychological issue using theories and concepts from a psychological perspective.
3. Students will be able to take a position on an ethical issue and defend it.

Course Objectives:

1. Students will be able to define psychology.
2. Students will be able to describe three topics of research that psychologists might study.
3. Students will be able to explain what is meant by the nature versus nurture controversy.
4. Students will be able to identify, and explain the contributions of, one noted psychologist.

About This Writing Intensive Course

This course is one of the writing intensive courses currently offered at PCCC. Because of that you will obviously be doing a lot of writing in this course. In fact, writing will be worth 1/3 of your grade and we will be doing many different forms of writing.

You will also be encouraged to use efolio in order to create an electronic portfolio that can go with you from semester to semester in order for you to see how your writing has advanced as you further your education.

We will also be using etutoring. This is a free service available through PCCC which enables you to get feedback on three drafts of a paper before you turn it in. The advice from the tutors should help you improve your writing techniques and therefore help you earn a higher grade on your assignments.

Finally, we will be using WebCT/Blackboard for weekly discussions. These are meant to be informal writing assignments on a shared electronic space. I will be grading them as written assignments even though they have an informal feel. These discussions are meant to be a place where you can process some of the material we are covering in class.

You will also be expected to learn APA formatting, as opposed to MLA formatting, in this course. Rest assured that while there is a lot of technology and new writing techniques being used in this class, we will work on them together. Besides me, there is also help from the PCCC Writing Center. This is probably a new format to you, so please feel free to ask me questions about the nature of this course.